snow removal

[Fred Schueler]

Everyone,

Yesterday we did the Wood Frog ponds in Limerick forest where we check
the late winter ice every year, and there were 34, 47, and 39 cm of snow
at different sites. At home a pile of vegetable waste I've been putting
out to see which species the Cottontails go after hosted the "totally
unanticipated phenomenon" of 20 worker Honey Bees on the pile, evidently
roused from the hive across the street, but unable to find anything else
to study on the snow-covered landscape. In the evening, it was 12°C, and
I had the first Robin song in my auditory monitoring, and then a few
cries from a Ringbill Gull overhead later in the night.

About at midnight, the flow in the creek at Kemptville passed the
average flow of 9 cubic metres/second, and began a hockey-stick surge up
towards the 22 cubic metres where it is now -
https://his.rvca.ca/rvcafwl/ISG/StandardGraph_KemptvilleCreek_Hourly.html

In the morning it was 13°C, there was open water on creeks which had
been solidly iced over all winter, and as we went south towards
Brockville the areas of snow-free ground became more and more extensive.
On our return home at noon, the treetops in the village were generously
grackled, and the air was 15°C.

In the afternoon, we went down to the Mill Street bridge over the creek,
mostly to see if the "vortex," where flood waters in the old millrace
swirl around before going under the street, was concentrating snail
shells, and we found there was a moderate flow under the street, but
that the upstream side, where the vortex forms, was still solidly banked
with snow. We came back in the onset of a windy rain storm, which may
have produced some thunder-like noises, and which left 5 mm in the rain
gauge.

Auditory monitoring at dusk, after the rain had ended, had two
twittering flightsongs by a Woodcock, a burst of long howls by a few
Coyotes, and what may have been 2 peeps by a Peeper. In past springs
I've found dead Woodcock which seemed to have starved before the ground
had been exposed, and this year I've been worrying that if the Woodcock
came back while there was still a foot of snow on the ground, they might
have been in trouble, but at least this one seems to have come back just
on the day when the snow has largely disappeared.

I just went out to check the "Pentecostal Culvert" roadside hole
(21h15-21h17, 10°C, overcast, force 4 breeze), and didn't see any frogs
(none were there in the fall), but there were several active Cepaea
snails on the roadside. Daffodil shoots exposed by the melted snow are a
couple of cm tall, so it seems spring is here.

fred.
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
2024 annual letter: https://clt1233162.bmeurl.co/11E63979
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
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